Red heart

The classic red heart: love, affection, thanks or simply “I like this”.

Meaning

Love and affection, romantic or not.
A warm “like” or thank-you, often as a message reaction.

The red heart ❤️ is the classic heart emoji: love, affection, thanks or simply “I like this”. It was the second most used emoji in the Unicode Consortium’s 2021 study.

See every heart emoji and what the colours usually mean.

Meanings describe how people commonly use this emoji; usage varies by person, group and platform.

Drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the site owner.

Examples

love you ❤️
thank you for everything ❤️

Looks similar

Heart on fire❤️‍🔥 is a heart on fire: passion, burning love.
Mending heart❤️‍🩹 is a mending heart: healing after hurt.
Growing heart💗 is a growing pink heart: lighter, cuter affection.
Heart suit♥️ is the heart card suit, also used as a simple heart symbol.

Questions

Why does the red heart sometimes look like a plain black symbol?

The red heart is the character ❤ followed by an invisible “show as emoji” marker. If the marker gets lost, some apps show the plain text symbol instead. The copy button on this page always includes the marker, so it pastes as the colour emoji.

What does ❤️ mean?

❤️ Red heart means love and affection, romantic or not. It is also a warm “like” or thank-you, especially as a message reaction.

Is ❤️ romantic?

It can be, but it is used just as much between friends and family. Context decides; 😍 or 💘 are more clearly romantic.

How do I type the red heart emoji?

Search “heart” on your phone’s emoji keyboard, type :heart: in Slack, Discord or GitHub, or tap Copy on this page.